The Golem Flute
by MarionetteInMay
Summary: It was my fault. I was the one who wasn't strong enough, rich enough to save him.


**A/N-** Just a short one-shot starring tiny!Yuki during her brother's death. Review?

* * *

><p>It was my fault. I insisted on searching for junk in the rain.<p>

"Yuki, come back down!" He called to me. He had to rise his voice to be heard over the rain. "C'mon, you're going to fall!"

"Bro, it's fine!" My voice was cheerful, innocent, not even thinking of the consequences. The Golem Flute. I wanted it so bad. It was going to be mine. That Flute. It was the only thing I could think of as I scaled the mountain.

That goddamn Flute.

"Yuki!" He called again. His usually tousled brown hair was pressed to his face and hid his eyes from me.

"Bro, don't be such a worrywart!"

I began digging through the trash and the junk, pushing aside anything not of worth. My eyes searched the things beneath me frantically. I was focused on it. _Flute, Flute, Flute, Flute..._

The idea of a junk landslide didn't even cross my mind.

"Yuki!" Two hands shoved me, and I tumbled down the hill a little. Out of the way, but I didn't know that until I heard the monumental crash, the sound of scraping metal, the scream of a voice all too familiar. And when I looked back, I saw the landslide. I saw the collapse.

There was one thing I didn't see. My brother.

"Bro?" I asked, hesitant. "Are you there?"

I heard what sounded like pained murmuring. He was trying to say something. He was under there. Somewhere. Beneath all the dirt and rocks and stone-cold steel.

I was small. Wherever he was, my minimal strength and pathetically tiny body wouldn't be enough. I couldn't dig him up alone.

So I went to Fobial. He was the richest person there, after all. He was strong and smart and could get my brother out if he wanted to. But his answer crushed me. "How much will you pay me?" he asked with that stupid 'I'm-more-important-than-you' sneer. He was looking down at me, both literally and metaphorically.

I paused to stifle a sob. "I-I-I don't don't have anything right now, but—"

"You expect me to help you without payment, Yuki?"

"B-but, he—he... he's my brother! He's going t-to die!"

His words were dismissive. "Then you better get some money before that happens." He turned and walked out of the room. I swear I heard laughter.

My eyes trailed to the old, crappy gun on the table. Fobial was probably planning on repairing and selling it. I couldn't sell it, it wasn't worth anything in it's current state, but I took it anyway. Snatched it off the table and shoved it in my jacket. It was the first time I held a gun, and I knew it wouldn't be the last. That gun, it's still in my house, a relic. I let it be the object of hatred in replacement of Fobial himself.

Everyone else, they said the same thing as I begged and pleaded.

"What do you have in exchange?"

"What're my earnings?"

"Do I get any money out of it?"

"I'm not doing anything without payment."

I was fed up. "He's another fucking human being!" I screeched at the sixth person I begged. Tears flowed freely down my cheeks, mingling with the rain that soaked me. Had been for a while. I wondered when tears dried up. After a day? A week? Maybe they never did. "He's another life! Another person! And he's going to die unless someone saves him!"

"Yuki, you need to learn that people do nothing without payment." That man's words were branded into my brain.

So he died. Well, I guess he died, since no one ever got him out. Not me. Not anyone I pleaded. No one helped him. Helped me. I dug for days, tossing aside junk, lots of it stained red from where my hands bled. He became the Golem Flute I had been so innocently searching for.

But, like that stupid Flute, his body evaded me.

Once my cries only came out as violent choking, I realized I forgot to figure out how long until tears dried up. I let that thought fuel more grief.

It was my fault, I realized. as I rebandaged my arms, legs, hands, stomach, all cut and sliced from my searches. It was because I didn't have money. It was because I was weak. It was all because of me.

Brother, he always talked about golem hunters. He loved them, their life, and he dreamed of being a hunter himself. If I became a golem hunter, I could get stronger and get more money. Rich and powerful, like that stupid Fobial. I knew I could. I already had a weapon, kind of. It was his dream, so maybe I could fulfill it for him.

Maybe I could make him proud.

* * *

><p><strong>AN-** And there we have it! Did I do okay?


End file.
